NPR Ombudsman Refuses To Speak To Glenn Greenwald About Torture

Bloggasm:

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald has rarely been one to avoid responding directly to his right wing critics. He's been on Hugh Hewitt' radio show on multiple occasions and has even appeared on Michael Savage's show. As an opinionated pundit, he believes that people like him should be willing to face off with others in public forums that are not always friendly to their views, and he finds those that avoid doing so "cowardly and irresponsible."

Read the whole story: Bloggasm

Comments

[provgrays]

NPR is far to the right.
They have countless experts from Republican "think tanks" and the hosts coo agreement with their perfectly modulated voices.

The callers are mere pests, until the month long pledge drive begins.

[miranda2060]

The callers are often plants.

[noamjunior]

"enhanced terrogation" is a Bush euphamism to explain away illegal act- by using it NPR is slanting the news to relfect Bush's perspective

[noamjunior]

between the constant news slant to the right and the continuous use of right-wing PR flacks described as "policy experts" NPR is becoming FOX paid for with our tax dollars

[sueno]

Greenwald is right!
NPR is full of Bush loyalists who
won't change their ugly tunes-
How can a 'professional' run from a discussion that is inherently wrong
and why continue to perpetuate such a terrible argument?
NPR with staff like Liasson, Shepard and others are becoming irrelevant, un-inclusive and un-american with their rhetoric and that's why I don't tune in-

[OfficialA]

NPR has joined the MSM. NPR is "fair" and balanced. I can no longer bear to hear their corporate-fascist drivel masquerading as news

[provgrays]

A true public news organization would not be behoden to so many corporations who need the status quo to survive.

Every five minutes, you hear "Supprt for NPR provided by insert giant corporation here..."

[billythehut]

I think it's been a while since NPR had it's finger on the pulse of reality. I remember I was stopped at a traffic light in South Boston last Feb (or maybe it was March), and the commentator on NPR is explaining how the economy isn't so bad that people are waiting in soup lines. I look across the street at the two block line for the Red Cross food pantry and realized just how clueless NPR has become.

That being said I think Greenwald is in a competition here to prove his cluelessness. People have a right not to go on his show. If he want's to continue to criticize her position that's cool, but he's not too smart to focus on her unwillingness to be interviewed.

[naschkatze]

I am an admirer of Greenwald, but I think you are right. He shouldn't force her to come on his program but should just keep hitting NPR on its gutlessness in a non ad hominem way. It obviously goes beyond the woman and has been given approval by whoever makes policy at NPR. Over the years I have lost respect for NPR and think the staff was stacked by Bush choices. Maybe there is some pressure from the new administration to continue to use this surreal term, enhanced interrogation techniques, and that's what Greenwald should get to the bottom of.

[markdavida]

Glen does not have the power to force anyone on his program, but his request is valid. If her comments are beyond her now she should recognize this publicly and state it is NPR who does not want the interview. That way we can direct our disapproval towards them. I for one stopped giving them money years ago.

[noamjunior]

not exactly - if NPR is too chicken to face Greenwald - really they are no better than FOX, RUsh or Savage as far as News based in fact and critical thinking

[provgrays]

I meant to write "beholden" in my above post for those who delight in ridiculing typos.

[northstar11]

i am not familiar with NPR. It seems as though greenwald would like her to call a spade a spade and replace enhanced interrogation with the word torture or explain why not.

she may have pressure points that prevent her from doing his bidding.i dont know

but you can make the point without really hitting it square on .

you can always say things like ----""i would never stoop to calling him a jacka$$ but others have many times , but i would never go there."""

call it what you will NPR------ just dont stop presenting the stories about it.

greenwald for his part instead of putting her in a bad spot should continuously make the point that when anyone says """enhanced interrogation""" it is synonymous with ""torture"''

listeners do not need to be beaten over the head --they know whats up.---even the denyers know

[NWNHNM]

Apparently not. Fifty percent of Americans support torture. Go figure.

[tdpubs]

Those people are part and parcel of the problem. They don't take the time to explore the facts. I remember listening to NPR in 2003 and realizing the Sadam was being set up.

I learned a lot from NPR regarding the then upcoming financial crisis a year before it came crashing down.

We simply need to bring back non profit news.

[smith930]

> Fifty percent of Americans support torture.

I think you made that statistic up. Link, please.

[naschkatze]

I don't believe polls having been questioned myself several times. The questions are worded to elicit the response the questioner desires. For example, I was once given a list of Ronald Reagan's accomplishments or policies and was asked to select the one I thought was the worst. No matter that I may have thought 9 out of 10 were bad and only 1 out of 10 good. It would not have been reflected in the poll. At least be skeptical about polls that are so close in percentages.

[valkyrie607]

I will be calling my local NPR affiliate during the upcoming pledge drive to tell them that as long as Shepard remains as ombudsman, I won't be donating any money to them.

I wish there was some way I could ensure that I could direct my money to NPR shows that don't shill for the Bush administration position even once it's out of power. Since I can't, I'll be donating to Greenwald and Democracy Now! instead.

[StrayTalk]

Calling during the Pledge drive and not giving would be the WORST time to call. It's a busy period. You would be rightly ignored and a as a volunteer I would not pass anything on as a comment unless you gave something--even 5 dollars. Your comments would at least get read by someone but maybe not on the air. If you have an issue with local programming, that's something that they have control of. Call the Programming Director and tell them your thoughts on a weekday.

[DrPneumann]

The strength of the "pen" is the ability to ink the truth, ink a lie, ink a half-truth (or half-lie for all you glass drinkers), or ink nothing at all.

Question the motives of the hands that hold the pens.

Always.

[LDnearthesea]

I refuse to donate money to any public radio station that carries NPR, even those that have Democracy Now. Give directly to Pacifica Radio.

[disintaGreatNation]

NPR has been very callous in the way it has handled the issue of torture by Americans, and the office of the NPR ombudsman is part of the problem, not the solution.
For example, I am still shocked and saddened by one segment that NPR aired in 2003. The segment is still up on the NPR website. It is called "Interrogation Music."
In that segment, NPR personality Linda Wertheimer laughs and giggles about the use of incessant plays of music to force Iraqi prisoners "to give it up" in America's search for Iraqi WMDs.
As she giggles and smirks, NPR guest Christoper Cerf talks about demanding royalties from the U.S. Army for plays of Cerf's music. While he admits the practice was condemned as torture by Amnesty International, Cerf yucks it up with Wertheimer about authoring some new tunes for the Army's use as "interrogation music."
Listen and weep: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1290449
Back then, I complained about this story to the NPR ombudsman; and I'm still waiting for a response.

[NWNHNM]

Nice to know that the pledge money sent in by little old ladies on social security is being well spent on the NPR ombudsman.

I gave up on NPR after the Swift Boat debacle of 2004. Each time NPR mentioned this phony "controversy" about John Kerry's war record, it played a significant portion of the Swift Boat ad. Not enough for NPR to summarize the allegations about Kerry - it had to basically give ad time to these phonies (as if T. Boone Pickens couldn't afford to pay for more air time himself). So much for "news" or "objectivity" or even "relevancy".

RIP NPR. Don't really miss you.

[LDnearthesea]

National Petroleum Radio!

[kamandi777]

NZR=National Zionist Radio MPR=Mainstream Public Radio

Inskeep and Montaigne are full on mainstream media shills who regurgitate talking points like an arctic bird feeding their young.

Language is best when brief and concise
"Family Worship and Community Center" or Church

"Justice and Confinement Facility" or Jail

"Nationl Public radio Ombudsman" or Tool

[NoahVail]

NPR should have the guts to use the word "torture" when talking about torture. That being said, why should the ombudsman be expected to give public pronouncements? The ombudsman is an investigator, not a spokesperson. According to my dictionary:

ombudsman |ˈämbədzmən; -ˌboŏdz-|
noun ( pl. -men)
an official appointed to investigate individuals' complaints against maladministration, esp. that of public authorities.

ORIGIN 1950s: from Swedish, ‘legal representa­tive.’

[islandchris]

NPR was gelded years ago.

[markproulx]

x2

[LDnearthesea]

Yet the right-wing considers them "liberal." What a joke. I'd rather spend my time listening to Pacifica Radio, a real news outfit!

[disintaGreatNation]

The first sign of real trouble at NPR may have come in October 2002, when the Bush Administration was trying to drum up Congressional support for an invasion of Iraq. That month, a large anti-war demonstration took place in Washington, D.C. NPR news -- which, of course, is based in D.C. -- called the demonstration a failure, and NPR grossly under reported the number of demonstrators.